A 16-year-old Iranian girl is in a coma after she was assaulted on a Tehran subway, reportedly by the morality police for not complying with the regime’s rules on the hijab. According to rights groups and activists, the girl was severely assaulted. The incident puts the country on edge as it has taken place a year after mass protests broke out following the death of Jina Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish-Iranian woman who died while in custody of the morality police. The 22-year-old too, had reportedly flouted the strict hijab law.
Footage of the incident shows the girl being carried out of the train by other girls. A report by the state-run media said that the girl fainted after a drop in blood pressure, leading her to hit the side of the train carriage.
In an interview with government-run news agency Fars, the parents of the girl confirm the authorities’ story of the tragedy.
Iranian Authorities have in the past published forced interviews with family members. At the time of Mahsa Amini's death in September 2022, authorities had said that she had a neurological disorder that caused her to collapse inside a police station. Amini's family said that they were denied the right to choose the doctor to conduct a postmortem examination. Amini's death sparked several months of protests, the biggest challenge to the Islamic Republic of Iran since it took power in 1979.
16-year-old Armita Garawand is being treated under tight security at Tehran's Fajr Hospital. All visits to the hospital were cancelled and special units deployed inside and outside of the hospital.
Hengaw published a photo of the young girl in hospital, which shows her in a coma with serious injuries. According to the news agency, the security forces seized the family’s cell phones after the photo went viral on the internet.
